Jimmy,
I suppose I should weigh in here. Large forest-growth sugar maples can easily
exceed 12 feet in girth in the southern Appalachians and on occasion 14 or even
15. I'm unsure of what the largest one Will Blozan has measured. Many years
ago, I measured a beauty that was 13.7 feet in girth and about 115 feet tall.
Heights for Sugar Maple in the Smokies have been measured to slightly over 150
feet with many sugars in the 130s in several areas of the Carolina mountains.
Moving northward, dimensions for the in-forest trees decrease. By the time the
Taconics of eastern New York and Berkshires of western massachusetts are
reached, a big in-forest sugar maple is more likely to be 10 to 11 feet around
with only an occasional larger one. Open grown trees can exceed 15 feet with a
few as larger as 18 or 19. I think this size range holds across New York.
On ideal growing sites, sugar maples in the Northeast can reach 130 feet,
although more typically 115 to 125. The lesser sites produce 90 to 105-foot
tall trees. Moving northward into Vermont and New Hampshire, big sugars will be
9 to 10 in girth, with some sites producing trees 10 to 11 feet around. Heights
will usually be between 90 and 110 feet in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Unfortunately, the heights of in-forest sugar maples are often difficult to
measure. The crowns can be confusing to decode and there are often a lot of
fine branches that obscure laser shots to the highest points. Younger sugar
maples are easier to measure.
I once measured sugar maples in a stand near Camillus, NY. There were many 8 to
9.5-foot girth maples. Only a few were larger. Most were between 95 and 110
feet with one or two to perhaps 115 feet. Judging from our ENTS data, your
sugar maple is certainly a very handsome specimen, but many will match or
surpass it in latitudes 40 to 43 degrees along a pretty broad longitudinal
corridor and in the mountains farther south.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Frelich" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 12:54:22 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [ENTS] Height Measurement
Jimmy There are a number of sugar maples about that size in various old growth
remnants in Minnesota, such as Wolsfeld Woods, and Crosby Manitou. I can't
remember any quite that large in circumference from Nerstand Big Woods State
Park, but there are some taller ones there. The really big Sugar maples in the
region are in The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Upper Michigan.
There are numerous specimens there with much larger trunks and also 20 feet
taller, especially in the area around the Presque Isle Campground. The
Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin also has very large sugar maples in
the coulees. Coulees are v-shaped valleys carved in the karst by streams, and
many of them are several hundred feet deep and have seepages, making ideal
conditions for large trees. Lee Barry Caselli wrote: > Amazing. I've never seen
any kind of maple as big as that. But we > don't have sugar maples here, and
big trees are rare anyway. > > --- On *Fri, 1/15/10, Jimmy / /* wrote: > > >
From: Jimmy > Subject: [ENTS] Height Measurement > To: "ENTSTrees" > Date:
Friday, January 15, 2010, 12:55 PM > > I'm new to the game and still using the
old Hold out a stick height > measurement technique. How accurate is that? > >
> Here's a sugar maple I measured Using that Technique. >
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38649...@n08/4272915937/in/set-72157623216597308/
> > > This is the largest forest grown sugar maple I've seen in Minnesota, >
10'9" cbh 83' tall Crown 61'. > How does that compare to other Sugars? > -- >
Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org > > Send email to
[email protected] > > > Visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en > To unsubscribe send email to >
[email protected] > > Email Options: >
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/subscribe?hl=en >
-- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to
[email protected] Visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to
[email protected] Email Options:
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/subscribe?hl=en
--
Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
Send email to [email protected]
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en
To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
Email Options: http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/subscribe?hl=en
